4 comments:

512 will apparently do the deal for most users. Gamers and those crunching seti units or large spreadsheets definitely need more. A lot more, in my opinion. I'm not at all sure I could justify building a new box with less than 2 GB memory, but I use a fair number of memory-intensive applications and don't consider my use typical.

You really can't go wrong adding memory. At least it gets to the point where you can't afford lunch.

I figure that 2 GB will hold me for the next couple of years. Those of us who have had 1 GB are just moving to 2 GB. A few things driving this are despite DRAM prices creeping up, 1 GB costs what 512 MB cost a couple of years ago so it is affordable. That and more of us are doing things like movie editing and DVD authoring -- right there is a good reason to go to 2 GB.

I run ALOT of apps at once, so a good sized chunk of RAM and good sized swap file allocation on the harddrive are a requirement for me. 512MB is what I conside a MINIMUM requirement, though some brand name computers are still coming with mush less, 128MB is still being sold in some entry level computers. What some users do not understand here, is that not having enough RAM, not only slows down your computer, making you wait, it also beats the poor harddrive to death, swapping to and from it repeatedly. And why is that important to them, they muse, simply put, EVERYTHING is on your harddrive! The harddrive basically contains your computer's 'personality', the software, the settings, all the things you have saved, email, bookmarks, photos... and not having enough RAM threatens that existance, by shortening the life of your harddrive. And let us not forget REGULAR BACKUPS so that should the poor harddrive die, we can get the computer back to almost where it was when you last saw it happy. Rambling still... KoffeeBeanz...